Housing Insecurity and Social Exclusion in Rapidly Growing Cities: Patterns, Policy Gaps and Community Responses

Abstract

Families may have a roof over their heads but struggle with high rent, eviction, crowding, unsafe construction, poor water and sanitation services or live so far away that getting to work and school is a challenge. This narrative review and policy synthesis examines how such pressures result in social exclusion in fast growing cities. The policy context of India’s fast growing secondary cities is the main focus, with global evidence for comparison. Some of the foundational studies, national surveys, government schemes and international reports were selected, with evidence published from 2020 onwards included in the review. The synthesis identifies a housing exclusion pathway linking cost, tenure, quality, services, location and documentary status to employment, education, health, welfare access and civic voice. Billions of people in the world are living in inadequate housing and India has recently expanded its policies to include affordable rental housing. Ownership-led programmes limited municipal capacity and uneven local data still shape the delivery. Community savings groups, resident enumeration, incremental upgrading and negotiated service provision can all produce practical solutions by residents but cannot substitute for public responsibility. The paper offers an integrated framework, a policy-gap matrix and a typology of community response. Our main contribution is to provide a simple explanation of how housing insecurity works as a process, not as a single event.